Specifying a Table of Contents Entry

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 22, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

If you are creating a regular table of contents from headings within the document, you don't need the information in this tip. Instead, you should refer to the TOC tips provided in other issues of WordTips. If you are creating a specialized TOC, however, then you will need the information in this tip. Examples of a specialized TOC would be a table of figures, illustrations, or tables. To create these types of TOCs, you must follow these two basic steps:

Specify what you want in the TOC.
Generate the TOC.

The first step is done by the following these steps; the second is covered in the next tip.

Position the insertion point immediately after the text you want included in the TOC.
Press Ctrl+F9 to insert a set of field braces. Make sure the insertion point stays between the braces.
Type tc, followed by the TOC entry within quotes. Thus, if you want the entry to be "North American Mammals", enter tc "North American Mammals" between the field braces.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each TOC entry you want to define.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12659) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Printing the Navigation Pane

The Navigation pane can be a handy tool for seeing the overall organization of your document and easily moving to ...

Discover More

Table Header Rows after a Manual Page Break

Insert a manual page break into the middle of a table, and you may find that subsequent pages of the table don't always ...

Discover More

Making a Signature Line that Doesn't Disappear

Do you need to add a line to your document that indicates where a signature should be made? If you don't want that line ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Creating a Table of Contents from Heading Levels

If your document is any length at all, adding a table of contents is a nice touch. This tip demonstrates how easy it is ...

Discover More

Creating a Table of Contents from TOC Fields

If you inserted a bunch of TOC fields in your document, you can create your table of contents quite easily based on those ...

Discover More

Customized Tables of Contents

Generating a table of contents is easy in Word. Changing how that table of contents looks is also easy, provided you ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is seven less than 8?

2020-03-14 02:30:46

BradleyK

This page has a mention of the TC field but the TC field should be treated as what it is, a completely separate field that is used by the TOC field to create a Table of Contents.

This is the first time I have been frustrated by the TIPS site. I have used the site for Word and Excel for over a year.I And seeing the other areas it includes, I am planning on checking out a couple of other forums.

But Table of Contents related fields is complicated according to the Word Help results. That is why I love your site. Short, to the point , very descriptive texts to specific tasks. I think even my wife could use your tips. (She is very incompetent with Windows, Word and Excel and refuses to go to any classes about these subjects. I am not nearly as good at technical support withing the family as I was when I did telephone customer support for printers and servers long ago. Those customers were usually technically competent and just need a little help with the printer or the server.)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.